In multicellular Eukaryotes, single cell reproductive mechanisms are suppressed in most cells, being contained in specialist reproductive organs.

Cancers seem to be rogue cells, in which primordial single cell reproduction in inappropriate cells is triggered and commences in an adult organism. – probably because some genetic restraint or control mechanism is broken. I would guess that they have been around since there were first multicellular organisms.

Can I point out that the condition identified is Fibrous Dysplasia of Bone (FD) which is not a cancer, nor is it generally considered hereditary. Obviously, this does not take away from the general point of tumour-diseases not being unique to modern times – some of the cellular changes in FD are found in aggressive variants of certain cancerous bone tumours today.

Sorry – this sort of error, in the first line of the article no less, makes me grit my teeth…

Presumably Neanderthals (just like less technologically advanced populations of modern humans) dealt with carcinogens, even if the environment itself was relatively unpolluted; I’m mainly thinking of smoke from cooking fires, which is a major health risk for a lot of people in poorer societies today. Apart from that, aren’t many cancers congenital?

Presumably Neanderthals (just like less technologically advanced populations of modern humans) dealt with carcinogens, even if the environment itself was relatively unpolluted; I’m mainly thinking of smoke from cooking fires, which is a major health risk for a lot of people in poorer societies today…